Starke County Leader Newspaper Editor James Master contributed to this article.
The Starke County Commissioners will meet in special session today where they will discuss expenses related to two Starke County Sheriff’s Office squad cars.
During Tuesday’s meeting of the Starke County Council, the council heard a request from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department to purchase two new vehicles.
During the Feb. 3 County Commissioner’s meeting, Sheriff Jack Rosa presented quotes for new vehicles. The new vehicles were 2023 models and totaled $83,292. The commissioners approved this purchase as well as $15,000 to outfit the vehicles.
The final approval of the purchase was heard at the Council meeting and was attended by Starke County Deputy Chief Wayne James.
James informed the council that the outfitting was going to cost more than expected, going from $15,000 to $27,000.
Council President Todd Leinbach asked if the commissioners had approved the extra cost. James replied that the commissioners had not.
Leinbach then asked about the motion that the commissioners had approved, if it had been designated where to fund this request. The council was told that it was to be taken from either CEDIT or Jail CEDIT.
Leinbach thought the motion had been for the Cumulative Capital Development Fund, but the county auditor said she believed that it was CEDIT or Jail CEDIT.
“I don’t know why we’d take an asset out of CEDIT,” said Leinbach.
Council Vice-President Bruce Bennett asked if there was enough funds from the Cumulative Capital Development Fund to cover the cost. He was told that there was enough funds.
Leinbach asked County Attorney Justin Schramm about using Jail CEDIT. He indicated that he and Schramm had emailed about this subject.
“I think we need clarification or I think there is discussion about our representatives maybe making an amendment to our specific Jail CEDIT,” Schramm said.
“So, with that being said, we’re already in enough trouble with the State Board of Accounts from that stuff last year so we should try to keep ourselves out of it this year as much as possible,” said Leinbach.
The auditor asked if the council would like the cost to come from the Cumulative Capital Development Fund instead.
“Well, that’s where I think it should come from,” Leinbach said. “I mean, because it’s capital outlay it’s not really an economic development, I mean it’s buying a police car, that I can see. I know it all comes, kind of out of the same pot but we need to keep in our wheelhouse.”
Council Member Howard Bailey asked Deputy Chief James if it would benefit the Starke County Sheriff’s Department to have two new vehicles every year.
“Say you get two new vehicles every year, would that, over time, eliminate your vehicle problems that you have,” asked Bailey.
“Absolutely,” James replied.
Leinbach remarked that doing so would cut down on maintenance costs.
“For a county this size, for the way we do business, running only two people a shift those cars get a lot of wear and tear and they’re older vehicles. We’ve had used vehicle from other agencies. We don’t know the problems they had, they’ve been cycled down so many times,” James said.
He added that besides the decrease in maintenance costs, having newer vehicles on the road would be beneficial to the officers.
Bailey asked how many years the department could get out of new vehicles. James said about four or five years depending on how many miles that are put on them.
Leinbach asked how many vehicles the department currently has in its fleet. James replied about 18.
“That way it would solve your problem of having poor cars and needing cars, and used cars. If you were on a rotation where every year you got two new squad cars, eventually that would solve your problem,” said Bailey.
The special session of the Starke County Commissioners is set for 2 p.m. CT today in the ground floor meeting room in the Starke County Annex No. 1 building at 53 E. Mound Street in Knox.
